In June 2017, founder and CEO Monique Y. Wells traveled from Paris, France to her hometown of Houston, Texas to kick off a multi-faceted initiative that promotes literacy for African-American children in grades K-3.
The first event – People and Pajamas – took place on June 17, when the Houston Public Library (HPL) and the Wells International Foundation co-sponsored an all-day read-a-thon at the Johnson Branch in Sunnyside. Currently, 35% of the population in this community lives below the poverty line and youth in the community are especially at risk for low academic and literacy success.
Dr. Wells grew up reading at the Johnson Neighborhood Library.
“I owe who I am, why I live where I live, and why I do what I do to the books I read in this branch,” she says.
Eighty-five (85) persons (63 children and 22 parents) came out to listen to community leaders, library staff, parents, and Dr. Wells (14 persons in all) read to neighborhood children from 10 AM until 5 PM. There were breaks for refreshments, lunch, and arts and music activities to keep the kids engaged.
Many participants came to the library in pajamas to evoke the scenario of reading before bedtime.
Each reading session was based on a theme – kids listened to stories about families, the beach/summer, the circus, the zoo, libraries, and nighttime. They earned free books for each session they attended so they could begin or add to their home library.
A total of 226 books were given away!
HPL is tracking the progress of children who participate in the Summer Reading program to determine whether their participation in the read-a-thon had an impact on their progress and completion of the program. In addition, the library is tracking changes in new library card applications to assess the effectiveness of the project in attracting library non-users to start using the library.
People and Pajamas was the pilot for a 24-hour read-a-thon that WIF and HPL will co-host in the future. It is called Reading Never Stops. For more information, and to support the fundraising effort for this worthy cause, click HERE.
